Using Alien Skin Blow up 3 to enlarge files

[rpavich]

As I read everything I can get my hands on about this camera, I notice people say; "I'll live with the 6mp because it's such a great camera..." and similar comments. I started thinking; is there a way to get a few more megapixels for printing that won't degrade quality?

So I downloaded a trial copy (fully working for 7 days) of Alien Skin's new Blow up 3 and tested it on a raw file that I got from the internet and color me impressed!

It appears to enlarge (I enlarged 180%) without artifacts and smearing or anything bad happening to the file.

I guess if I ever have to print larger than what the native R-D1 file will do, this is a good alternative.

Just thought I'd mention it if anyone was interested.

 

[back alley]

the rd1 was one of if not my favourite digital camera…i had 3 of them but sold them off to get into fuji…you're making me regret my decision...

 

[Kate-the-Great]

Good to know this exists. I agree 100% with back_alley, the R-D1 was my favorite small-format camera ever but the resolution made prints more of a novelty than something that could actually cover a wall. So I sold it and got X-E1 which is a fantastic camera and has all the things the R-D1 was missing; enormous dynamic range, high resolution, live view- but it's just not the same. There was something about the colors the R-D1 made that was beautiful to me beyond compare, perfect for the gritty urban landscapes I do. Next time I get a bonus at work I think I know where some of it's going 😉 Keeping the X-E1 (so as to not add another layer of regret) and getting another R-D1 seems like the correct thing to do.

Ack, sorry to turn this into yet another "R-D1 vs Fuji" thread, carry on.

Any chance of some sample crops?

 

[rpavich]

Good to know this exists. I agree 100% with back_alley, the R-D1 was my favorite small-format camera ever but the resolution made prints more of a novelty than something that could actually cover a wall. So I sold it and got X-E1 which is a fantastic camera and has all the things the R-D1 was missing; enormous dynamic range, high resolution, live view- but it's just not the same. There was something about the colors the R-D1 made that was beautiful to me beyond compare, perfect for the gritty urban landscapes I do. Next time I get a bonus at work I think I know where some of it's going 😉 Keeping the X-E1 (so as to not add another layer of regret) and getting another R-D1 seems like the correct thing to do.

Ack, sorry to turn this into yet another "R-D1 vs Fuji" thread, carry on.

Any chance of some sample crops?

Sorry, I dumped the files but I'll see what I can do.

I also am a Fuji man, I have an X100T, and I've had (and loved) and X-E2, and just "liked" and X-T1.

They are close...don't get me wrong...but they just don't do it for me, I'm hoping the R-D1s will.

 

[sevo]

Stand-alone upscalers can be useful if you have to enlarge for a screen medium - but for printing, they are pointless as the upscalers in the printer or print software are perfectly matched to the rasterizer used in the printer, and do a even better job.

 

[JP Owens]

I haven't used an upscaler since Genuine Fractals back in the day (early 2000). But, that program was magic. I was scaling EOS D30 3 megapixel files to 20x24 and they looked great. If Blowup is using the same kind of technology, I would say it would be useful for a 6 mp file.

Repeatedly upscaling the file in Photoshop by small increments also works well, but is much more time-consuming.

 

[rpavich]

Stand-alone upscalers can be useful if you have to enlarge for a screen medium - but for printing, they are pointless as the upscalers in the printer or print software are perfectly matched to the rasterizer used in the printer, and do a even better job.

Hmm...I used to use Perfect Resize because files that I send out to print houses would give a warning about image quality at certain sizes, so I got into the habit of upsizing if necessary before sending the file.

I don't know that I've ever seen the option to upsize at the places I send files to.

 

[nikonosguy]

Blowup is awesome. Ive taken digilux2 4 megapixel files and blown them up to 16x20. Ive also managed to make usable prints from an 800x600 file

 

[sevo]

I don't know that I've ever seen the option to upsize at the places I send files to.

Nobody in the printing industry calls it "upsizing" - they print at whatever size is requested. Back in the days when Genuine Fractals hit the market one German pro magazine ran a comparison test of GF upscaled prints against not upscaled (that is, RIP resp. printer upscaled) prints at billboard size - and even then, the difference was marginal, with either superior on some subjects...

 

[Huss]

Stand-alone upscalers can be useful if you have to enlarge for a screen medium - but for printing, they are pointless as the upscalers in the printer or print software are perfectly matched to the rasterizer used in the printer, and do a even better job.

The places I use don't do that. They have a resolution warning if you pick a size to print that is bigger than the file can handle.

These upsizing programs sound very interesting.

 

[Turtle]

I think the warning is simply because they know the limits of what the printer/driver can handle (which is uprezzing/upsizing or whatever you want to call it). I did quite a bit of research on this a while back and trialled uprezzing software and found that none really beat relying upon Lightroom and the printer (Epson 3880 in my case). I was making test sectional prints from what would have been a 50" print from my Leica MM.

The LR/printer results may have lacked the bite of some of the uprezzing software examples, but the latter produced some unnatural looking results at times (in the details and edges).

Online research reached the same conclusion: Lightroom, PS and printer drivers are so good as to render uprezzing software entirely obsolete. People who print for a living seem to largely agree that leaving it to the printer/RIP is a better idea than specialist upsizing software (which ten years ago was unquestionably better than PS at uprezzing).

The places I use don't do that. They have a resolution warning if you pick a size to print that is bigger than the file can handle.

These upsizing programs sound very interesting.